Internet Can Help You Get A Good Sleep

It is true that most of us devote lots of time on the internet. The internet has stolen many of our hours in the blink of an eye. As I wrote in one article, almost 6% of world population has an internet addiction. Although, the internet is more common and habit-forming. According to a new study, this habit-forming internet can also help you to get a good sleep.

Scientists suggest that a web-based therapy for insomnia could be an effective option. For the adults with chronic insomnia, cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is the first-line treatment. Scientists from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville and colleagues conducted the study.

Scientists involved 303 adults with chronic insomnia to discover the effectiveness if web based CBT-I over the long term. They tested volunteers with a six-week automated, interactive and tailored web-based program (Sleep Healthy Using the Internet, or SHUTi, at HTTP: www.myshuti.com) or an online, non-tailored patient education program about insomnia.

During the study, participants took more than half hour to fall in good sleep at the beginning of the night. Likewise, they took more than half hour for being awake after initially falling asleep at least three nights per week for at least six months; this is average 6.5 hours or less sleep time nightly and experience significant stress or impaired functioning due to sleep disturbances. About half of the participants also had at least one medical or psychiatric condition.

51% participants from SHUTi group and 46% participants from the educational group had taken a sleeping pill at least once. Scientists then found that the insomnia is no longer a problem for participants with SHUTi. 70% of SHUTi participants had seen at least some improvement, compared to 43% of participants who received an education.

Dr. Lee Ritterband said, “The online intervention was not intended to replace face-to-face CBT-I. But instead of expanding the availability and access (to CBT-I) to meet the needs of the millions of people.”

On this basis, researcher suggests SHUTi was significantly more effective for good sleep than the patient education program.

Dr. Aric Prather said, “This study provides the strongest evidence to date that web-based CBT-I is efficacious for treating patients with insomnia, including those with some psychiatric and medical comorbidities.These findings further highlight how technology can help scale the disseminations of needed interventions.“